Disgaea: Gothic Lolita
by ButterBean21
Summary: Everyone has their happy ending. Adell has Rozalin, Laharl has Flonne and Gordon's long dead. But where's the Overlord's happy ending? Be careful what you wish for, Etna, 'cuz you just might get it. Rated 4 questionable content. EtnaxVyers/Krichevskoy
1. Episode 1: Almighty Overlord Etna

_A/N: Disgaea: Gothic Lolita _takes place after the bad ending in Disgaea: Afternoon/Hour of Darkness (or the ending of the anime; your choice). Since I didn't clarify on the ages of the characters in-chapter, I'll go ahead and do so now: Laharl is 2513, Flonne is 2712, and Etna is 2670. So, they're all about 1200 years older. Now, as for an explanation on how I use the ages of the people in Disgaea; as far as I'm concerned, when Laharl first appeared in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, he was 1313, right? And his physical appearance was that of a thirteen-year-old boy. So, if he's 2513, then he's gonna look like a guy in his mid-twenties (forgive me if that doesn't make sense, PM me and we can discuss it). Okay, now that that's cleared up, roll the story!

By the way, a beta reader would be greatly appreciated. You just have to have a grasp on what mildly good grammar and word usage is and what happens during the bad ending of Disgaea (or the anime). If anyone's interested, PM me so I can send you this chapter, because I'm sure it has errors out the earballs.

Disclaimer: Disgaea and all of its characters, settings and affiliates do not belong to me. Also, any song lyrics I use in the duration of this story don't belong to me, either. I simply borrow it all so that I can flex my creative muscle.

* * *

**Episode 1: Almighty Overlord Etna**

"Prinny Squad! Get your lazy butts over here!!"

"Yes, Master Etna, dood!" a cacophony of high-pitched voices responded. I watched, surprised, as the penguin-like creatures gathered before the throne with little to no complaint. I found the ease with which they responded to her intriguing. I inched closer in my hiding spot, eager to see how they reacted to her when she spoke again.

"I am making the journey to the Lunar Snowfields tomorrow in search of a new dessert, a delicacy that can only be found in the coldest parts of the Netherworld. Those of you who have saved up enough cash or have repaid your debt to society are also going. Am I correct?" Her voice was powerful, confidant. I felt my chest swell with pride. She became a great Overlord, better than I had ever expected from her. My smile matched hers as she listened to her servants respond. A few whoops and yells of approval could be heard among the thronging crowd of vassals.

"Yes, Master Etna!"

"Quiet down! Now, as you know the trip to the red moon is risky. It would be a shame if you were to die on the last leg of your quest for redemption. So, I am offering my services to you. If you want to go to the Lunar Snowfields tomorrow, I'll protect you along the way. You got that?"

More whoops and cheers. In the front row, a few prinnies were crying. "Thank you, Master Etna!!"

She grinned wider to more cheers from the prinnies. "Eh, don't mention it. Now get to work! I want this place spotless before you leave tomorrow!!"

"Yes, Master Etna!!" The group instantly dissipated. The prinnies were eager to please their kind master, who was perched on her throne looking quite pleased with herself. She took the crown off of her head and stared at it thoughtfully, and after a moment of contemplation I realized with a jolt that she was wearing my crown. I wondered why she chose a simple circlet of gold instead of the multitudes of magnificent and downright gaudy crowns that I'm sure my old vassals offered her. They would have definitely been better testaments to her many wonderful achievements than the one made in my tarnished image. I twitched when I heard my alias ring out in a soft tone.

"Vyers… What are you doing here?"

Standing, I stepped out from behind the pillar I hid behind, concluding that my choice of hiding spots was poor, at best. "You sound displeased, my lady. Is there something wrong?"

She looked up, and I am doused in the brightest of crimson stares, the intensity in those orbs unfazed by the slight smile on her lips. "Not really. I was just wondering why you were hiding behind that pillar. Isn't the Dark Adonis supposed to be more refined?"

I stammered, "Uh-uh- I-I do acknowledge that my actions were foolish, my lovely Madame. I was simply going to introduce myself to the Overlord when I was stunned into a corner by your elegance. Your grace is insurmountable, my lady, even when dealing with the lowest of demons. I was stunned, and I admit a bit frightened by your sophistication. Please accept my apology, dear Madame." I bowed low for effect, turning my charm up to its highest degree. Even the most powerful of demonesses were defeated by my adoring words. I expected lady Etna to be no different.

To my surprise, I heard her scoff. "Why do you insist on talking this way to me? I know who you are. I've known since Laharl's mother was reborn. Do you consider me that naïve, Lord Krichevskoy?"

I was dumbfounded. Never had anyone, especially a woman talked to me in such a blunt manner. No one, I decided, except my dearly departed wife, and with that thought I looked up at the Overlord. Etna was still sitting on the throne, but her posture was rigid and her face was turned away from me in disgust. I chided myself on my actions as I stood upright. In my foolishness I had treated her like a child, when she deserved to be respected for the adult I knew she had become. I walked to the throne and kneeled before her, my head bowed in shame. "Forgive me, my lady. I forgot who I was addressing. You have become… A magnificent Overlord. One that even I must concede to. Your prowess and your beauty befuddled my mind, and our history forced me to treat you as I used to. However, that was unfair of me. I didn't consider that you have been through much without me, and have changed. For that, I apologize."

"… It's okay." I stole a glance at her from my kneeling position. To my surprise, she was smiling at me, one fine eyebrow arched higher than the other. Her face was in shadow, blanketed by her thick ruby bangs. Even in this condition she glowed, her happiness mirroring the joy on her face when I took her in such a very long time ago. "You can stand up now. I get kind of uncomfortable when people bow to me for too long."

"Oh, pardon me, my lady," I replied, gracefully setting myself on my feet. A question popped into my head, and for the first time I felt uncomfortable in her presence as I shuffled my feet. "How is Laharl?"

"He's fine. He and Flonne are in Celestia, meeting her parents. They're having difficulty deciding on a place to have the ceremony."

"Ceremony? You mean—"

"Laharl finally popped the question," Etna finished for me, a sad smile on her features. "It took him practically forever, because he wanted everything to be just right. He ended up spilling tea on her dress and burning the cuffs of his suit, but he finally spit the words out. She said yes, and ever since then he and her parents have been arguing where the wedding's going to take place. So far, Laharl and Ozonne, Flonne's younger sister, have been at each other's necks, but nothing seems to be working out. Poor Flonne is so stressed out. I sent her to a spa to relax, but even that didn't help much."

I perched on the arm of the throne, looking down at her. "If you wanted, you could use your title as Overlord to demand that the wedding be held here. After all, they're both your vassals, right?"

She sighed, putting her head in her hands. "Yes, but I wouldn't want to abuse my power like that. I'm trying to be a good Overlord, not Laharl."

I chuckled. As much as I loved my only son, I had always known he would never be a very good Overlord. He was just too much like his mother, so stubborn. As much as I had tried to coach him in the ways of ruling a kingdom, it always seemed like the little girl assigned as his first vassal listened to my ramblings more than he did. As I looked down at the little girl-turned-mature woman, I realized that I had in fact left behind a rightful heir. "You are such a good ruler, Lady Etna," I murmured, smiling down at her as I stood from the throne. "I knew I made the right choice when I took you under my wing."

She looked up at me then, and I read her whole being in her eyes. Her strengths, her weaknesses, her reverence for me—and something more that I refused to acknowledge. It was too painful to see the longing in her gaze, to watch as her body leaned almost unconsciously toward me as I stood, as if she feared I would leave her side. I also rejected my own feelings—feelings of loss, regret and betrayal towards my late wife, as well as my feelings of pride, desire and affection for this demon girl who was so much younger than I. I wanted nothing more than to lean down, to watch her react as I pressed my lips to hers, to feel her respond to me. I closed my mind against the torrent of ideas that thought brought forward, chiding myself for being a filthy old man. _You should be dispelling these feelings she has instead of responding to them! _My mind ranted, stomping about in my head like Laharl when I wouldn't let him play his videogame all day. _You have no right to take her life away from her!_

_I know, _I wailed, staring at the girl beside me, who'd risen to her feet as well.

"So, I guess you're leaving again?" She asked, feigning happiness as she stood about a foot shorter than I, staring up at me with carefully guarded eyes. "I'm very glad you came for a visit. It's been awhile. I wish Laharl and Flonne could have been here."

"Yes, it would have been grand to see them again," I replied, unable to tear my eyes away from hers even though my mind railed against me. "I'll be back soon." My voice sounded as empty as my promise, and I struggled to pull myself together.

"I only wish you could stay longer," she murmured, looking away from me to the red carpet before her. "It gets very lonely here, and with my best friends planning their wedding and everything, I always feel like a third wheel." She scoffed again, and I fought the instant urge to smile; "And every guy Flonne sets me up with ends up being nothing but a power-seeking jerk. All they want is the throne. I almost feel like just giving up being Overlord. No one wants me for _me_, you know? It's always the prospect of becoming the ruler of the Netherworld that turns them on." She sighed heavily, her shoulders sinking.

In retrospect, I'm not quite sure what propelled me to act that night. Maybe it was what she said as I readied myself to walk out of her life once again. Maybe it was the way the torchlight hit her face, forming a sort of halo around her smooth cheeks. Maybe it was the fact that, as she spoke those last few sentences, she sounded and looked as empty as I felt. Whatever the cause, I acted lightning quick, my hand touching her chin and turning it upwards. I was already there, my lips crashing onto hers in the sloppiest kiss I've ever had. My hands seized her forearms, holding them to her sides. I remember not wanting her to touch me, such a filthy, dirty impulsive old man. She still managed to grab the sides of my coat and pull herself closer to me, hands like claws. I tried to push her away, but my plan backfired; she was stronger than I guessed, and she fought against my hands, pushing her soft body even closer to mine. I was quickly losing control of the situation.

And just like that, it was over. I managed to push the shaking girl off of me, a whimpery sound uttering low in her throat as I pulled away. I released her shoulders, shocked to find that I was trembling, as well. I remember thinking _I've got to get out of here, _and finding that my mind had all but ceased its incessant raving. Maybe it had been stunned by the kiss as well. With one last look into her ruby eyes and one quick peck on the forehead, I spread my wings and bolted like the coward that I am.

For no true ruler of the mighty Netherworld would have kissed a woman and left her standing all alone beside her throne. No real man would have railed against his feelings for so long, and in one instant shatter a girl's heart by giving her hope and stealing it away again. I am only grateful for the fact that Laharl inherited more of his mother's genes.

_Etna…_

* * *

_Shut up and put your money where your mouth is_

_That's what you get for waking up in Vegas_

_Get up and shake the glitter off your clothes now_

_That's what you get for waking up in Vegas_

~ Katy Perry, _Waking Up In Vegas_

One thousand, nine hundred-ninety-nine words. I hate myself.

~Loli.


	2. Episode 2

This chapter's even shorter than the first! Oh well. ~Loli.

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**Episode 2: On Love, Betrayal and the Power of Wishing**

"… And then Laharl-san and Ozonne-chan started screaming at each other… Oh, Etna-san, what am I going to do? This wasn't what I planned at all!"

"Hmm… Hwah? What did you say, Flonne?" I asked, coming out of my reverie and blinking, holding my cell away from me and glancing at the call time. The clock told me it had been about half an hour since I had last paid attention to Flonne, and I winced as she shrilly chided me for my ignorance.

"Oh, Etna-san! Please pay attention! You're the only one I have to talk to right now! Mother and Father are coddling me like a child, Ozonne-chan hates Laharl-san, and Laharl-san just wants to come home! I don't have a lot of options right now!!"

"Easy on the ear, Flonne, you know I only have two," I told her, holding the phone away from my face as her voice got more and more piercing. Sighing, I brought the phone closer and said, "Look, why don't you tell Laharl, your bratty sister and those clueless parents of yours what _you _want? Don't you want to have the wedding on Earth?"

"Well, yes…"

"So tell _them _that! Honestly, girl, if you don't start speaking up for yourself I'm going to come up there and knock some angels around."

"Nononono, you don't have to do that, ahaha," Flonne fake-laughed, and I could hear the panic rising in her voice at my suggestion. She sighed, and murmured, "So, you know what's going on up here. How's the Netherworld?"

"Eh, same old, same old," I replied, feeling like crap as I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from telling her about the most important thing that had happened to me since they had left for Celestia. As bad as I wanted to tell her I knew she was off-limits, at least until she could get better at hiding secrets from Laharl. If I revealed to Flonne that Vyers, the Dark Adonis, actually the "late" King Krichevskoy had come waltzing into the Overlord's castle and kissed the brains out of me, she would probably reveal said information over dinner that night. I could only imagine the look on Laharl's face after she spoke. He'd probably blow her parents' house apart. "Hanako and Aramis learned Prinny Raid this morning, so obviously it rained big blue penguins all day." That wasn't quite true; I had kept them from blowing prinnies up _most _of the day, but I knew that the poor girl needed a laugh. True to her nature, the thought of my two youngest vassals having a prinny fight made Flonne giggle lightheartedly, sounding happier than she had been since Laharl had proposed to her.

"Ah, Etna-san, you can still make me laugh so easily," Flonne sighed, her light voice growing heavy once again. "At least some things haven't changed."

I hesitated a moment before asking bluntly, "Do you regret it? Saying yes, I mean."

"What? Oh, no no no, of course not!" She replied quickly, and I could hear the honesty in her voice. "It's just… I miss the old days. The carefree life I had with you and Laharl-san in the Netherworld, you know? It's great to see my family again, really it is. I just wasn't prepared to deal with all of this. I thought it would just get easier after he proposed."

"I could still come up there and split some heads open, you know. The offer's still good."

She laughed again. "I'll keep that in mind. Laharl-san and Ozonne-chan can really get on one's nerves after awhile."

After we'd hung up, I felt once again empty and alone. The joy in my voice when I was talking to Flonne belied the raging emotions in my heart, from betrayal to desire to anticipation to fear. He had told me he'd be back soon. Of course, that was before he'd kissed me for half a minute and then ran like hell, but in my stupidity I still managed to hope. Love does stupid things to smart demons.

I cringed. Love… I've never had as much as an aversion to the concept as Laharl had, but it had never been a big point on my game plan, either. After Flonne came and changed Laharl, however, some of her thinking processes apparently rubbed off on me as well. I began to think about the late King, and what my feelings for him meant. There was an insurmountable amount of regret there, along with an equal amount of appraisal… And, when I searched deeper, I found that what I felt for the King was more than simple worship. I looked back at old pictures of the two of us, before Laharl's mother had come to the Netherworld. Sure, he held me like a father would a daughter, but there had to be something else there…! I then picked up a picture of the newly married royal couple, and I found it. When I looked at the happy King with his arms around her waist, something twisted in my gut. I'd dropped the pictures and fled my secret room, which I'd kept open even after I claimed the throne for myself. There was something in his eyes that I wanted for myself, a longing that his eyes held every time he looked at her. It disgusted me to think that a mere human would enrapture his heart instantly when I'd been there all along. Of course, I was thousands of years younger than he, but still… _I found him first!!_

I sighed and collapsed into the small coffin Laharl had used to sleep in. I was in the Prince's old bedroom, which I had yet to claim. He and Flonne had stayed in here awhile after they got together, though they had had to get an actual bed since the coffin could barely contain the growing demon boy anymore. I struggled to get comfortable as I laid in it, my legs spilling out over the bottom of the casket and onto the floor. Even after becoming Overlord I slept in my secret room, unable to take the room that King Krichevskoy and the Queen had shared. So, after about two hundred years, Laharl and Flonne began to sleep in the King's quarters. I couldn't help drawing similarities between the two couples; Laharl and Krichevskoy had met and fallen in love with an angel and a human, respectively, two beings from two different worlds. The King and Queen had brought the human world and the Netherworld together, and Laharl and Flonne eventually became the knot that bound the warring opposites, the Netherworld and Celestia, together. Only I was left, and there was not another world that a suitor could come from, unless they came from an alternate netherworld. Multiple times I offered Laharl his job back, but to my surprise he turned me down every time. "My old man would have wanted you to keep the job," he'd say. "You deserve it. I wasn't ready when I took it the first time, and I'm still not ready." It drove me crazy, because while he had found his happiness, I had yet to find mine. And being stuck with the title of Overlord was not a place to begin finding my happiness. All I could get here was power-hungry suitors and daily challengers.

I thought back to my younger days, watching Laharl kneel before a small white flower and confess his love. It had shocked me, but it had also made me jealous. And the scene afterward was even more painfully familiar; he, standing up and sacrificing himself for the one he loved. She, giving up her life for the baby of the King of the Netherworld. My chance to save the said King's life, to profess my own feelings, only to have them refused. That was the one time I believe I ever hated King Krichevskoy, when he allowed himself to die instead of accepting my life in exchange for his. I couldn't understand it then, and even to the present day, lying in a coffin much too small for me, I still don't understand it, although there is a considerably lesser amount of pain now that I know the King never really died. He just couldn't stand living in the castle anymore, where memories of her abounded. Laharl was much too young and definitely too stubborn to name him as his predecessor instantly, so he did the one thing he could think of; he coached me on how to be an effective Overlord, and then faked his death. I don't blame him for that. If not for Maderas stealing my memories, I'd have found living in the castle to be unbearable as well.

I curled myself into a semi-ball in Laharl's old coffin, my legs still hanging over the side. I found myself thinking about the old days, being with the King before he fell in love and after I'd already done so. I wondered briefly what would happen if I'd met the King when I was older, before the Queen came around. My heart jumped at the idea even as my eyes closed, exhausted from the onslaught of memories.

"Meeting the King before he fell in love," I mumbled, fighting to stay conscious. I wondered if someone had used a sleeping potion on me like I'd used on the prince, and briefly I fought against sleep. I half-sat up in the casket coughing and blinking, trying to expel some of the potion's hold on me. I thought of the King again, and my struggle was instantly defeated. As I collapsed back into the coffin, I thought, _Well, if I had to be poisoned, at least I'll die thinking about the King._ With that thought running through my mind, I allowed myself to lose consciousness, drifting into the musky smell of the dungeons.

_In Celestia…_

Flonne kneeled against the side of her old bed in the house she grew up in. Her room hadn't changed much at all since she'd left; the golden cross still hung above her bed, the clothes were all still neatly tucked into the drawers, and the floor was immaculate. Now, though, she wasn't the only one in the room. A body lay in the tiny bed already, facing towards the wall and away from her. She eyed the familiar blue antennae happily. She could hear Laharl-san snoring already, and added a blessing to keep his dreams happy.

As she finished out her prayer, her mind crossed Etna, all alone in the Netherworld. She added a prayer to keep her safe and happy, and then thought about it. She sounded troubled over the phone, and even though she hadn't let on that she was upset, Flonne could tell. Chewing on her bottom lip, she wondered about what she could do. After considering her options, she bowed her head again.

"Dear God, whatever Etna-san wants, please let her have it. I know this is a bit of a selfish request, but she deserves something in her life to make her as happy as Laharl-san has made me. Something… Or someone that she wants more than anything else! Wouldn't that be a great way to pay Etna-san back for all the help she's given me? I think it would. Please, God, hear my plea. Bless Etna-san tonight, because I'm afraid she needs it more now than ever. Thank you a lot for listening!! Good night!"

* * *

_I complicated our lives by falling in love with him_

_I complicated our lives, now I'm losing my only friend_

_I don't know why_

_I had to try_

_Living my life on the other side_

_Now I'm so confused,_

_I don't know what to do…_

~ t.A.T.u, _Loves Me Not_


End file.
